China reportedly "sunk" a
mock US aircraft carrier with a state of the art missile during a war
game in the Gobi Desert recently, fueling concerns that the newly emerging
superpower is increasingly eyeing the United States as a military rival.

"The People's Liberation Army has
successfully sunk a US aircraft carrier, according to a satellite photo
provided by Google Earth," reports
the Want China Times," adding that, "A satellite image
reveals two large craters on a 200-meter-long white platform in the
Gobi desert used to simulate the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.
The photo was first posted on SAORBATS, an internet forum based in Argentina.
Military analysts believed the craters would have been created by China's
DF-21D anti-ship missile, dubbed the "carrier killer."

The article cites a report which appeared
in the state-run Global Times boasting of how the new missile has the
capability to strike aircraft carriers 2,000 kilometers away. The report
was careful to add that the missile, which is being stationed at strategic
locations around China's coastline, does not have the technical capability
to reach America, a moot argument given that US aircraft carriers are
located at numerous different points on the globe at any one time.

As Business
Insider notes, the report's legitimacy is bolstered by the fact
that, "The China Times is a 63 year old Taiwanese paper slightly
slanted toward unification, but with a solid reputation and accurate
reporting."

Although the test in the Gobi Desert
was supposedly successful, defense expert Roger Cliff points out that
targeting a real aircraft carrier at sea would be significantly more
difficult.

"The thing to keep in mind is that,
in order for China to successfully attack a U.S. navy ship with a ballistic
missile," Cliff
told The Diplomat, "it must first detect the ship, identify
it as a U.S. warship of a type that it wishes to attack ... [then] over-the-horizon
radars used to detect ships can be jammed, spoofed, or destroyed; smoke
and other obscurants can be deployed ... and when the missile locks
on to the target its seeker can be jammed or spoofed."

However, the fact that China is targeting
a mock US aircraft carrier as the main focus of one of its war game
exercises is sure to set alarm bells ringing, especially amidst an undercurrent
of tension created as a result of China's recent spat with Japan over
disputed islands in the East China Sea. Last week, Japan
warned that it would fire on Chinese aircraft to prevent violations
of its airspace.

Threats on behalf of Chinese military
officials to target the United States have increased in recent years.

In
September last year, Zhang Zhaozhong, rear admiral at China’s
National Defense University, was quoted in the state-run People's Daily
as bragging that China would comfortably defeat Japan in a war and that
Beijing should prepare for the United States to become involved in the
conflict.

In
December 2011, Zhaozhong also warned that China "will not hesitate
to protect Iran even with a third world war."

Earlier this year, Zhaozhong
reacted to the announcement that the United States had developed
a new high-tech stealth destroyer warship by
saying China could use fishing boats laden with explosives to carry
out suicide attacks against the U.S. Navy.

“It would be a goner,” Zhaozhong told
state broadcaster CCTV’s military channel.

In July 2005, Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu boldly threatened
the United States with a nuclear attack if it became embroiled in a
conflict between China and Taiwan, with which the US has a mutual defense
pact.

"If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided
ammunition onto the target zone on China's territory, I think we will
have to respond with nuclear weapons," Chenghu
told reporters. "We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the
destruction of all of the cities east of Xian [in central China]. Of
course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds ... of cities
will be destroyed by the Chinese," he added.